A former Weston man has been found guilty of murdering a Muslim worshipper by driving a van at a crowded street of pedestrians in London.

A jury of eight women and four men took one hour to convict Osborne, who was seen smiling and blowing a kiss to angry bystanders in the moments after the terror attack, of murder and attempted murder.

Osborne, who had denied both charges, nodded and looked around the courtroom as the verdicts were delivered at Woolwich Crown Court.

Darren Osborne seen at a bar in Cardiff two days before the attack, where witnesses said he vowed to kill Muslims. Picture: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire.

Part way through his trial, the father of four from Glyn Rhosyn in Cardiff suddenly denied he had been driving the van at the moment of impact - an eleventh-hour defence the prosecution dismissed as being conjured ‘out of thin air’.

The attacker said he had no idea Dave - one of his two made-up accomplices - intended to smash into a group of pedestrians, and believed they were on their way to a pub to meet a third co-conspirator, Terry.

But jurors agreed with prosecutors who dubbed his increasingly improbable version of events a ‘total fabrication’ and ‘frankly absurd’.

Osborne become obsessed with Muslims after watching BBC drama Three Girls in May last year and was angered by what he deemed as inaction following a string of UK terror attacks, his estranged partner Sarah Andrews said.

Police believe these feelings were further fuelled by far-right material, with devices found at Osborne’s family home revealing multiple searches for English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson and Britain First’s Jayda Fransen.

Within a month Osborne, who had never previously expressed racist tendencies, had become radicalised and decided to take matters into his own hands.

Despite Osborne’s assertion that Dave had been driving and he had been changing his trousers in the passenger seat footwell at the time, only one figure was seen leaving the vehicle after the collision.